The present invention relates to systems that use life histories to determine component life, and more particularly to systems that use heuristics to create a predictor for the expiration of replaceable components.
The prior art is replete with complicated systems having numerous parts that wear during normal use. These systems require periodic maintenance to replace worn components. Typically, these complicated systems require service professionals such as field service engineers to repair or replace the components in these systems that wear during periods of normal use. In a number of these complicated systems, the period of time that the system is not working or, working at less than optimum performance, is critical. For many of these systems, it is intended to keep the system running continuously. A digital printing system is one such system. Minimizing down time is critical to the owners and operators of digital printers.
The prior art has recognized that it is important to count the number of uses that are applied to printing devices. One such prior art reference, U. S. Pat. No. 5,383,004 issued to Miller et al. (Miller), discloses a method and apparatus for normalizing the counting of sheets that are printed to compensate for varying sizes of sheets that are printed and provide a more accurate record of the wear on components within the system. However, Miller does not teach a system that will provide the operator with the specific knowledge of the wear on the components within the system, thus enabling the operator to perform maintenance on the system at optimum times. By not providing optimum timing for replacement of components that wear during normal use, the resulting prints are not assured of being of optimum quality. Therefore, the teachings of Miller have a shortcoming in that the operator is not made aware of the current condition of the numerous parts within a printing system that will wear during use.
One solution that has been presented is embodied in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/166,326 filed in the name of Burgess (Burgess), commonly assigned with the present invention. Burgess describes a Service Publication System that provides service related information relative to Field Replaceable Units (FRUs). Burgess is useful in providing service related information for field service engineers and the like, by providing service diagnostics and browser enabled publications. However, Burgess relates to a system that is strictly intended to be used by field engineers and field service representatives and does not provide a system that can be readily utilized by the operator. While this system of Burgess is useful in providing data for a field engineer, it does not provide operators with the ability to perform maintenance without the service of a field service representative. Therefore, on-sight maintenance for sophisticated systems is not enabled by the system taught by the Burgess application. Furthermore, Burgess does not perform any type of automated predictor to determine component life. Moreover, it does not teach how to maintain replacement history and calculate a new life expectancy from that replacement history. Therefore, on-sight maintenance and on-sight predicting maintenance lifetimes of components for sophisticated systems is not enabled by the system taught by the Burgess application.
From the foregoing discussion it should be readily apparent that there remains a need within the art for a method and apparatus that provides system operators with the ability to accomplish on-sight maintenance and on-sight predicting of the lifetimes of components within these systems.
The present invention addresses the shortcomings in the prior art by providing a method and system, wherein the operational life of Operator Replaceable Component (ORC) devices within a printer are determined. The invention involves using replacement history of the ORC devices to predict the future life of respective newly installed ORC devices. The system of the invention provides for the tracking of the remaining lifetime of the ORC devices. As the system keeps track of the remaining life of the ORC devices, the system will prompt the operator when ORC devices need to be replaced. Once replaced, a database for the ORC devices is updated with the life span data of the ORC device that was replaced. The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides tracking usage of the ORC devices in an ORC Tracking Table along with an automated transmission of the ORC Tracking Table to a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Page count, or other additional parameters related to the type of customer usage, is employed to create the ORC Tracking Table chart. The concepts embodied by the present invention enable the operator to know when to perform maintenance on a sophisticated digital press without the requirement of a field service person. Once an operator replaces an ORC device, the life of that ORC device is reset and the entire system will anticipate the next ORC device expiration based on a different expiration parameter.
The present invention provides these and other features by providing an operator-enabled maintenance system having at least one computational element within the system, a history of a plurality of operator replaceable component (ORC) devices within the printer, a life span for each of the ORC devices, the life span being determined by an alterable set of parameters, a use mechanism coupled to each of the computational elements and the ORC devices, the use mechanism tracking use of at least one of the ORC devices using a predetermined parameter, a comparison mechanism that compares the use of the ORC devices to it""s expected life span; and a user interface that provides information regarding the remaining amount of the life span for each of the ORC devices.